Christmas SALES and credit crunch

I went to do some shopping today. I had some things I needed to buy and as I got paid earlier – some additional cash to spend. To my surprise I came home almost empty handed (if you know me even a little bit, you know that it’s rather shocking). It seem that credit crunch hit the shop owners more than I thought. Sales this year are much smaller that last year. Most of the things are discounted only a little (or at least, most of the things I wanted to buy). Seriously, discount from £59.99 to £55.99 is not really worth standing in a queue. And you could see the results in most of the shops. Queues to the tills were rather short, most of the people were just browsing, or buying just one thing. Most of the shops weren’t much busier than on normal Saturday. Usually during the Sales time shops are packed, people are loaded with shopping, four shopping bags in each hand and some more shopping stuffed under their arms (that’s often me :D). Today I haven’t seen a single person like that. Some shops didn’t really bother discounting their stuff, they just put the Sale banners up and left the same prices. Only Next seem to have a usual “Everything must go” sale, but even there I didn’t have to queue. Which is a good thing, cuz stuff I bought wasn’t on Sale anyways.

The only thing that stopped that day from being a complete disaster, was my visit in the bookshop (looking for the non-existing discounts – uuuh, 75% off “Aunt Marge’s Cooking Book” how exciting – none of the interesting stuff was discounted though). There, in the middle of the Sci-Fi section, next to “The Asbo Fairy Tales” I’ve found diet book - “I can make you thin”. Putting in SF section isn’t probably the best advertisement, but at least won’t give anyone any delusions.

Little Asia - Crystallisation gambit

If you read my previous post, you know that we have been blessed with two new PhD students this year. One of them – C. doesn’t seem to have any idea about chemistry. At first we’ve thought that maybe it’s the cultural difference and the difficulty in adaptation to the new environment (or at least I thought so, some other members are much less tolerant). But then the crystallisation incident happened and no one had any doubt anymore. C. hasn’t got a clue.

Let’s start from the beginning; The first reaction C. performed was reduction of D-phylglycine to get aminoalcohol. This is a routine reaction in our group, the prep is very easy and has been performed multiple times. Our postdoc L. helped C. to set up the reaction (haven’t seen that, but I suspect that L. set up the reaction for her). Obtained product, if you’re doing it on a small scale, is a white solid, easily recrystallised from hot toluene. At this step L. had already enough (pretty sure I’ve seen steam coming from her ears) and left C. to finish on her own. You think how difficult that can be, crystallisation is something you do in primary school, with kitchen salt. You dissolve it in hot solvent, wait until it cools down and voila… But… it seems that in Malaysia crystallisation is performed in slightly different (possibly revolutionary) way.

Malaysian recrystallisation procedure.

• 1 Round Bottom Flask with your product
• 1 Beaker (larger than the RBF)
• Ice (Dry Ice if necessary)

Place your RBF upside down inside the beaker (your solid shouldn’t fall out – it’s held in there by Malaysian voodoo). Fill the beaker with ice and stare at it for an hour. If your solid is not recrystallising, try topping up the beaker with dry ice.

I’m afraid I don’t know what happens next, because at this stage our supervisor came and showed C. how to do the  recrystallisation in the usual way (read recrystallised her product for her). I’m actually really upset, ‘cause this way he deprived us a chance to learn something new.

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Little Asia

Someone told me I should start writing down all the amusing little stories about my lab, to keep the for the generations to come. So I decided to do so, starting today.

Let’s start from the beginning, this October our group suddenly got much bigger. We got two new PhD students, three new MChems and an exchange student from Singapore. Theoretically, they should have all  started work in October (except the exchange student, she started a little bit earlier). In reality, we haven’t really seen them that much ‘cause apparently they all had more important stuff to do then their degrees. The exchange student, let’s call her Y., showed up for few hours on the first day and then she took the next day off to do some shopping. Apparently she had some serious purchases planned, because we haven’t seen her for the next five weeks. Our new PhD students, L. from China and C. from Malaysia (however in the beginning we were convinced she’s from Thailand) started right away. First week they had to attend all the stupid introductory training and seminars that all the starting PhD students have to in the beginning (me and S. (other PhD that started the same time as me) skipped most of those, under an excuse that we’ve already done most of them before (S. did her undergrad degree here and I was here three years ago as an exchange student)). Then, in the second week of the term, all the Graduate School courses have started. And those two apparently took an ambition to participate in all of them; Women empowerment in PhD, Self Motivation, Creative Nose Picking and other crap like that. In the spare time they started “working” in the lab. Subsequently we have discovered some surprising facts about them. We’ve already knew that L. knowledge of English is somewhat limited, however we haven’t suspected how much. Basically, most of the time he wasn’t able to understand what we were saying to him, however we haven’t discovered that right away, because when you talk to him, he always nods and says “Yes, yes”. But after few times someone told him to do something and the he did something completely different, we started to suspect that “Yes, yes” might actually mean “I have no idea what you just said to me, you capitalistic pig”. So the next conversation looked something like that:

-So you know what to do?

–Yes, yes.

-Are you lying to me?

-Yes, yes.

-You have no idea what I’ve just said.

-Yes, yes.

Problem with L. is that he doesn’t really ask questions. He does things wrong way (which can be very dangerous in chemistry lab) and even if you tell him the right way, he’ll either not understand you or ignore you, ‘cause he knows better anyways…

Gosh, it’s 3am – I’ll continue on some other day.

The Bond Ultimatum

Last week I went to see the new Bond movie, or should I say "Bond" movie. There's not much of James Bond left in "Bond" movies anymore.

I preferred the old James Bond movies, with a fancy gadgets and evil villains trying to kill our hero in elaborate and ineffective ways. It was supposed to be trash, and that was it's charm. That's why it survived so many years and sequels.

This one, I'm afraid doesn't have any James Bond spirit left. The lead character is played by Daniel Craig (again, to my surprise) great actor maybe, but not a James Bond. He's lacking the class, charm and pretty much everything that Bond is supposed to be. All of that is replaced by thug's face, muscles and lots of testosterone. Really, Daniel Craig would be a great Bond opponent, but is a miserable Bond.

The evil character is equally lame. Does he try to take over the Earth, does he have a secret lair, or a space station, or at least a submarine? NO. He's a business man trying to take over Bolivian water industry. Ooooh, it's so EVIL!

If they called this movie Marry Poppins 003 - it wouldn't make any difference. They even cut the Bond Theme out (almost, there were some miserable attempts to link the soundtrack with the theme, but they were rather failed), why? They obviously try to change the JB image, but why just not to change the name too and make a different movie? Why try to spoil something that was an icon for the last 55 years?

Additionally, what's with the Bourne plagiarism? - some of the scenes from the Quantum of Solace were almost unchanged versions of action scenes from Bourne Ultimatum. They obviously tried to top the Bourne Trilogy - pity (?) that they failed miserably...

So... if your looking for a classic James Bond - that movie is not for you. If you however, want to see action scenes from the Bourne Ultimatum again (and again), with Daniel Craig's face pasted in - that's just the thing for you. And if you're not interested in the weak back story - don't worry - you can sleep through most of the movie without loosing the plot. At least I did...

Fucking waste of time!

I've just lost an hour of my life that I'll will never get back, to listen to another totally boring, irrelevant and pointless organic chemistry lecture. Dr C. Braddock from Imperial College of London rumbled for an hour or so about total synthesis of Obtusallenes.

Have you ever heard about obtusallenes - NO? I'm not surprised - because they are some random compounds extracted in the 90's from some random Australian algae. You may ask what is so interesting about them, do they cure cancer, or revolutionise modern organic synthesis? No, they do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They're just of personal academic interest to Dr. Braddock.

Well, but maybe, you may say, some new synthetic pathways were discovered while synthesising it - NO THEY WEREN'T - they just used quite well known and established roads to achieve their goal. And guess what - THEY FAILED - in the end they haven't managed to synthesise the molecule. So, I'm asking one more time, WHAT WAS THE FUCKIN' POINT!!!

In summary - guy was presenting his failed attempt to synthesise, in non-revolutionary way, totally irrelevant compound.

Why does life hate me?

Aaarghh! Does Endsleigh offers insurance against time wasters?

Weight Training

To people who don't know - I'm a "very" sporty person. Recently I've found a comic strip that describes me pretty well:

I've also found few others that remind me of Weight Training Club at my Uni, which I'm a member of BTW (mainly for socials though).

Last one that reminds me of our President, he does Math after all...

Donkey with a hernia

Yesterday I've got a mysterious form from our fabulous National Health Service. I must admit I found it somehow difficult to fill, so I've ask for help at my local NHS Health Centre. Lady at the counter was unable to help me and advised to call NHS office in Coventry. So I did. After being pushed from one person to another, all unable to explain their own form, I was connected to the lady who send it in a first place. She was very surprised that someone found the form difficult.

Well I'm putting the form, filled according to suggestions from my some of my friends. Decide for yourself if it makes any sense or not.

 

BTW. If anyone asks - my door squeak, making a sound like donkey with a hernia.

Back to the childhood

This weekend I did few things I haven't done since ages.

First, I've bought a bike. I haven't been riding a bike since I was 14 or so. And I have completely forgotten how much fun that was. At first I wasn't that happy about it at all. It was pouring down with rain and I had completely no idea how to get from the "Centre" to the Campus. But then despite the odds I started enjoying it. After all if you put 15 stones on a bike down the hill is pretty fast... I came back home wet, covered in mud but really happy.

Other thing I haven't done in ages was eating in McDonald's. I don't really like junk food so I usually avoid it. But  this time I just really craved a BigMac. There's something reassuring in fact that whenever you go to McDonald's, in whichever country you are, it will always taste the same. I suppose it reminds me times when I was a kid and my mum came to see me on Christmas or some other holiday, we usually went there, because it was my favourite place to eat.

In the evening I've accidentally stumbled upon site hosting old ALF episodes. Do you remember ALF? Furry, bad mannered little alien that everyone loved in the 80s? Another memory from my childhood. ALF sounds a little funny not speaking German - but I suppose it's just me.

Yup. That was a good weekend. Pity now it's Monday and back to work.

Pretty and stupid

 

Did you ever wonder how it is to be pretty? I mean really pretty. Mélissa Theuriau pretty. The kind of pretty, you look at the person and think they must be dumb because they're too pretty to be smart?

It must be awesome!

If you're smart, you can use your appearance to make your life easy (at least that's what I would do). If you're dumb... well , it's even better - look at all the celebrities!  You wouldn't need a degree, you could just be an underwear model!

Smart and ugly people's lives are  so complicated. All the education and hard work. And only to be told, "you better don't go into dark street or you may scare someone". Thanks Giles.

Well, I still have two years of my PhD to go. And then I'm set up to develop my career as a life guard in Antigua (or similar place).

When life gets you down, remember. You could always be dumb and ugly!

Beaten dog

 

Do you ever see something that you know you can't afford and most likely won't be ever able to afford? I have it quite often (No, I'm not dirty poor, I just have expensive cravings!). When it happens I usually make this weird sound, kind of like a dog hurt by his owner with no reason. I can't help it - it just happens.

Well I did it today again. I was just coming back from Tesco, (dirty poor) when I saw white Audi TT Coupe on the Petrol Station. The owner looked like typical bureaucrat (possibly accountant) in midlife crisis. Gosh, he doesn't deserve this car. I do!

Take that Firefox users!

Doesn't Firefox users annoy you, with their smug little faces and superiority complex? Well take that Firefox users:

 

Signed:

Proud user of Opera and (recently more and more) IE7.

Am I an insane exhibitionist?!

 

Do you ever listen to one song over and over again? I do. A lot. According to WinAmp my record is somewhere around 300 times. Does it make me insane or just slightly weird? I suppose I'm just obsessive type.

Why exhibitionist? I don't really know why. Recently I'm being Facebook stalked by my supervisor. (Creepy, I can't use Facebook at work anymore :D). In answer  to my question about his Facebook activities he replied there's no point in being exhibitionist if nobody's watching :).

I don't know how extensive his "stalking" is, but in case...

Hi, Pete!

And no, I don't really use Facebook at work :D.

 

Something I've just found on GraphJam, I'm not an engineer but close enough.

 

more graph humour and song chart memes

Some of my favourite comic strips

 

Just one example of each one - to give you some idea how horrible person I am.

Cyanide & Happiness

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

 

Dilbert

 

xkcd

 

Pearls Before Swine

I'll post some more if I find time...

Good start

I've started this blog only because someone told me I'd never do that. So I had to show that person how wrong she is. And also, for some time now I had this need to put some of my frustration with surrounding world in writing. Save it for the future generations...

Thing I'll have to put here:

• my recently discovered love for Microsoft - Yes, Microsoft - don't laugh - Office 2007 and especially OneNote 2007 make up for the hours and nights spend reinstalling their software after seeing magic "blue screens"
• my bitter disappointment with Apple and their recent disaster - iPhone 3G
• and all the other things that make my life miserable... (so melodramatic :P)

Surprisingly, today there wasn't anything to really annoy me, and I've even found really cool gadget I liked. (And I really, really like gadgets! - people that know me can confirm). It's an iPhone app called Blofeld - apparently "it puts an image of feline pelt on your screen and purrs when you stroke it - it's genius! If I ever decide to get an iPhone (wait a little bit for angry post about how useless iPhone is, because it doesn't have A2DP) this will be one of first apps I buy. Can I get it for my Nokia now??

Hmm.. I don't seem to be able to put images in the places I want them to be... I'll have to work on that.

I've discovered that I can edit my blog using Microsoft Live Writer (have I already mentioned my newborn  love for Microsoft?).